Wisconsin state lawmakers can legally wipe many of their emails and calendars, a special carveout that leaves the public in the dark about records most other state employees are required to keep. Democrats rolled out a bill this week, timed with Sunshine Week, to force legislators to treat their correspondence as public records. With Republicans holding the majority, the measure faces long odds. Transparency advocates describe the exemption as “bizarre” and warn it undermines trust in an institution voters are supposed to keep an eye on.
The statutory carveout
Under state law, public employees must preserve official records, but legislators are excluded from those retention rules. According to the Wisconsin Department of Justice, lawmakers are exempt from records retention requirements under Wis. Stat. § 16.61(2)(b)1, while authorities still have to preserve any records once a public records request is filed. The DOJ guidance also notes that records covered by a pending request cannot be destroyed and lays out the legal remedies available when disputes arise.
How the loophole plays out
Reporters and open government advocates say this is not just a quirky legal footnote, it is a practical tool that lets offices clear emails and calendars so there is often little or nothing left to turn over. As reported by The Badger Project, both parties have acknowledged that messages are routinely deleted, and Bill Lueders of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council warned the carveout lets “things go away that they would rather not see the light of day.” The same reporting cites a 2021 Wisconsin Examiner note in which a lawmaker said his office “frequently deletes emails during the normal course of business each day.”
Evers tried to fix it
Governor Tony Evers attempted to close the gap in his 2025 executive budget, adding language that would explicitly treat legislators’ records and correspondence as public records and pay for carrying that out. Per the Department of Administration, the proposal set aside roughly $72,300 GPR in FY2025-26, $96,400 GPR in FY2026-27 and a 1.0 FTE at the Legislative Technology Services Bureau to administer the change. The measure was framed as part of the governor’s transparency push and was designed to provide the staffing and funding needed to make retention workable.
What happened next
As the budget moved through the Legislature, the powerful Joint Finance Committee stripped out the provision, leaving the exemption on the books, according to The Badger Project. Democrats in the minority have since brought back bills aimed at closing the loophole. State Sen. Chris Larson has offered similar measures in prior sessions and this week joined a freshman lawmaker to introduce new legislation during Sunshine Week. Advocates say the repeated, piecemeal pushes show how hard it is to convince the Legislature to hold itself to the same standards it applies to everyone else.
How Wisconsin compares
Nationally, Wisconsin stands out but is not alone. A comprehensive survey of state laws found that 12 states categorically exclude legislative records from public records statutes, while most states offer at least some access, according to research published in the Journal of Civic Information. That patchwork means a requester’s window into who is shaping policy depends heavily on which statehouse is doing the work.
Legal risks and enforcement
The statute also creates tension around enforcement. Wisconsin’s public records law bans the destruction of records once a request is pending and criminalizes certain kinds of tampering. As the Wisconsin Department of Justice notes, “Whoever with intent to injure or defraud destroys, damages, removes or conceals any public record is guilty of a Class H felony,” but proving intent and bringing cases that involve legislative offices can run into separation of powers issues and political headwinds.
For now, the exemption remains in place, and the latest bills function as much as a public accountability statement as a realistic route to immediate legal change. Sunshine Week and renewed attention from watchdogs and reporters have put the issue back under the spotlight, but without majority support in the Legislature, any permanent fix will require lawmakers to vote to subject themselves to the same record keeping rules that apply to the rest of state government.
